'Imitative obesity': fat friends can make you fat
- added July 25, 2008
- 8 responses
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- JanaPokana
- added this
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Since people are subconsciously influenced by the weight of those around them, having fat friends can cause you to put on weight too, researchers suggest.
An international study based on data on 27,000 people across Europe dubbed the phenomenon "imitative obesity" - or "keeping up with the Joneses" on calories.
Researchers suggest choices about appearance - on which decisions such as job offers or being deemed attracted - are based are determined by the choices others around you make. So, if people around you are fat, it is ok for you to be fat too.
Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick said: "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more. Some have argued that obesity has been produced by cheaper food, but if fatness is a response to greater purchasing power, why do we routinely observe that rich people are thinner than poor people?"
He said: "A lot of research into obesity, which has emphasised sedentary lifestyles or human biology or fast-food, has missed the key point. Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon not a physiological one. People are influenced by relative comparisons, and norms have changed and are still changing."
An international study based on data on 27,000 people across Europe dubbed the phenomenon "imitative obesity" - or "keeping up with the Joneses" on calories.
Researchers suggest choices about appearance - on which decisions such as job offers or being deemed attracted - are based are determined by the choices others around you make. So, if people around you are fat, it is ok for you to be fat too.
Professor Andrew Oswald at the University of Warwick said: "Consumption of calories has gone up but that does not tell us why people are eating more. Some have argued that obesity has been produced by cheaper food, but if fatness is a response to greater purchasing power, why do we routinely observe that rich people are thinner than poor people?"
He said: "A lot of research into obesity, which has emphasised sedentary lifestyles or human biology or fast-food, has missed the key point. Rising obesity needs to be thought of as a sociological phenomenon not a physiological one. People are influenced by relative comparisons, and norms have changed and are still changing."
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- JanaPokana
- 1 month ago
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I guess also hanging out with people who have a higher calorie intake must also be part of it. I mean, if everyone around you is always eating more..
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that is a scary picture btw..
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Regardless of the normative sway to fatness, seeing and being around fat people makes me want to go to the gym, not eat more. Then again, I'm pretty critical of my diet and lifestyle.
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Actually thats not true [well for me anyway] cuz when I see my friend eat, it make me not eat!
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- crazymonkey33
- 1 month ago
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Here we go again, everyone feels liberated to admit how disgusting they find fat people. Ew, seeing a fattie eat makes me even keener to stay slim! Blah, blah, blah.
Surely if people eat a lot, and they spend time with other people socially, then they'll all eat a lot together, and hence put on weight? Simple.-
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- LindseyIndigo
- 1 month ago
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Hmmmmmm I wonder if the reverse works... imitative slenderness! If so, I think i will hang out more with slender friends!!
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I suppose this may be true, but it is a bit ridiculous at the same time. You can be influenced by those around you, but you still have your own free will, you know.
oh yeah, and I do agree that, that is one creepy photo....-
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- ligaya1980
- 1 month ago
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